The 8 Best Mattress Brands According To Experts 2023

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The Best Mattress Brands - Our Top Picks

Best Overall - Helix Midnight Best Luxury - DreamCloud Original Best for Back Pain - Saatva Classic Best Under $1,000 - Nectar Original Best Value - Nolah Original Best Innerspring - The WinkBed (WinkBeds) Best Latex - Awara Original Best Hybrid - Casper Wave Hybrid

Best Overall - Helix Midnight

Material: Hybrid (foam and coils) Firmness: Medium (5.5/10) Customer Rating: 4.5/5 Delivery: 3-7 business days Trial Period: 100 nights Warranty: 15-year limited Available Sizes: Twin, twin XL, full, queen, king, California king

The Helix brand is known for its staggering selection of mattress models (13 in total by our last count). Among the brand’s baker’s dozen of beds include luxe versions of baseline models with tufted pillow tops, beds made to support heavier sleepers, and a bed designed for children. The Helix Midnight earned our mattress review testers’ pick for best overall — a likely pick, considering that the Midnight is also the brand’s most popular model. The Midnight has a foam top layer and steel coils wrapped in fabric, ensuring solid edges, minimal motion transfer, and support for the spine. Testers awarded the Midnight a 9 out of 10 score in the motion isolation, edge support, and spine alignment categories. And although Helix has a less robust warranty than some of its competitors, the brand offers an elegant workaround form of added reassurance: The brand will send you a complimentary pillow top if you’re feeling a twinge of regret for not opting for one of the plusher mattresses in its lineup. The pillow top is free and won’t void your 100-night trial.

Best Luxury - DreamCloud Original

Material: Hybrid (foam and coils) Firmness: Medium-firm (6.5/10) Customer Rating: 4.8/5 Delivery: Within 18-21 business days Trial Period: 365 nights Warranty: Lifetime Available Sizes: Twin, twin XL, full, queen, king, California king

DreamCloud is among a quintet of online mattress retailers under the Resident brand umbrella, which also includes Nectar and Awara. The brands share some qualities, like lifetime warranties and a year-long sleep trial. What sets DreamCloud apart is its affordable luxury, a quality best embodied in the brand’s DreamCloud Original bed. Testers said they found the bed’s lush surface of foam and cashmere so comfy that they’d hardly want to shroud the sleep surface with a sheet. Befitting of its luxury nature, the hybrid DreamCloud’s build of foam and fabric-swaddled coils also performed well in the sleep lab. The bed scored 8.5 out of 10 for motion transfer and cooling; 9 out of 10 for spine alignment, pressure relief, and responsiveness; and a perfect 10 out of 10 for its robust edge support.

Best for Back Pain - Saatva Classic

Material: Hybrid (foam and coils) Firmness: Soft (3/10), luxury-firm (6/10) and firm (8/10) Customer Rating: 4.9/5 Delivery: 9-21 days, free white glove delivery Trial Period: 365 nights Warranty: Lifetime Available Sizes: Twin, twin XL, full, queen, king, California king

Saatva is a luxury mattress maker known for excellence in materials and customer experience. One of the embodiments of Saatva’s gold-standard service is that every mattress is delivered, placed, and assembled by company employees per the brand’s complimentary white glove delivery policy. Those high standards crossover to the Saatva Classic mattress, testers said. The bed’s perfect 10 out of 10 spine alignment score is a solid indicator of one way in which the hybrid build lends itself to sleepers with back pain. The coils keep your back supported and aligned, while the plush top eases pressure (scoring 9 out of 10 in pressure relief) on any achy areas. Another luxury touch is you can tailor your Saatva mattress to your preferred feeling among their different firmness levels (soft, luxury-firm, or firm), and height (11.5 inches or 14.5 inches). The luxury-firm is an excellent medium-firm choice for sleepers with back pain. And while height differential won’t change the bed’s price or quality, it can help you find the perfect fit for your headboard or nightstands. Look out for flash sales from the brand since Saatva, with its stellar reputation, is slightly more coy about offers.

Best Under $1000 - Nectar Original

Material: Gel memory foam Firmness: Medium-firm (6/10) Customer Rating: 4.8/5 Delivery: 2-5 business days Trial Period: 365 nights Warranty: Lifetime Available Sizes: Twin, twin XL, full, queen, king, California king

Best known for its affordability, Nectar is another one of the five mattress companies housed by Resident. The Nectar Original mattress, priced at only $799, provides three layers of sturdy, queen-sized comfort. Testers said they enjoyed the Nectar’s robust perimeter, giving 9 out of 10 for edge support, and felt that body pressure was fairly evenly distributed, giving 8.5 out of 10 for pressure relief. While affordable and well-made, the bed may still have a few deal breakers — for example, despite its use of gel memory foam, testers felt the bed was a tad stuffy for hot sleepers. However, you’ll have plenty of time to decide for yourself thanks to a 365 night sleep trial and lifetime warranty.

Best Value - Nolah Original

Material: All-foam Firmness: Medium (5.5/10) Customer Rating: 4.7/5 Delivery: Free within 2-8 business days Trial Period: 120 nights Warranty: Limited lifetime Available Sizes: Twin, twin XL, full, queen, king, California king

A signature feature from Nolah is its use of “AirFoam,” a proprietary foam that the brand says is superior to traditional memory foam. And a 2-inch AirFoam layer is a key component in the Nolah Original mattress. The company claims that its AirFoam is designed to be body-conforming but thermo-regulating, providing pressure relief without body heat becoming trapped such that the sleeper sweats the bed. Testers said Nolah does indeed sleep fairly chill for being an all-foam mattress, giving the bed 8 out of 10 for cooling. The bed also garnered top scores in spine alignment (9.5/10), responsiveness (9.25/10), motion transfer (9/10), and edge support (8.5/10). With a price a little over $1,000 for a queen, Nolah is also an excellent mattress for its value when you account for the brand’s use of organic materials. The bed’s CertiPUR-US certification indicates its foams are free of ozone depleters, heavy metals, and chemical fire retardants (which also helps temper the bed’s off-gassing smell when unboxed). Nolah Original also comes with a lifetime warranty to protect your purchase.

Best Innerspring - The WinkBed

Material: Hybrid Firmness: Soft (4.5/10), luxury-firm (6.5/10), firm (7.5/10), plus (8/10) Customer Rating: 4.5/5 Delivery: Within 7-14 business days Trial Period: 120 nights Warranty: Lifetime Available Sizes: Twin, twin XL, full, queen, king, California king

WinkBeds offers a small but mighty selection of three distinct mattresses. Signature among them though is its original, innerspring mattress, The WinkBed. Like other modern mattresses with a coil layer, The WinkBed uses a sophisticated system of pocketed coils (over 1,000 in a queen) to isolate motion and add durability to the springs. Springs located toward the center of the mattress use coils with a thicker circumference, for added support under the lumbar region. Testers gave the bed 8.75 out of 10 for spine alignment. The bed’s build also provides springy responsiveness (9/10) and edge support (9.75/10), great perks for combination sleepers who tend to move around at night and may drift to the bed’s perimeter. A contouring and cooling gel memory foam layer beneath a quilted pillow top gives The WinkBed a luxury finish to complement its innerspring base. Mattress Advisor tested The WinkBed’s medium-firm mattress model, although you can also order the bed in a soft, firm, or extra-firm version.

Best Latex - Awara Original

Material: Hybrid (latex and coils) Firmness: Medium-firm (7/10) Customer Rating: 4.8/5 Delivery: 3-5 business days Trial Period: 365 nights Warranty: Lifetime Available Sizes: Twin, twin XL, full, queen, king, California king

Awara is known for its eco-friendly appeal, a feature that enhances, rather than compromises, the brand’s quality. In that same vein, the Awara Original is a hybrid latex mattress that uses green materials, like latex sourced from rubber trees, to perform with flying colors in the sleep lab, testers said. Mattress testers gave the Awara Original top marks in responsiveness (8.25/10), spine alignment (8.5/10), cooling (8.5/10), edge support (9/10) and motion transfer (9/10). The coil base of support, in large part, helps the Awara sleep cool, since the layer promotes airflow. In addition, the bed’s quilted cover uses organic cotton and wool, which are moisture-wicking and breathable. The lack of chemical additives and processing during the Awara’s manufacturing also make the bed exceptionally hypoallergenic, the brand says. Like other Resident mattresses, Awara has a full year sleep trial and lifetime warranty. Latex mattresses aren’t necessarily expensive, although, in the case of Awara, the brand’s use of durable, natural latex increases the price tag a bit. Last we checked, sale offers from the brand knocked $800 off a queen-size Awara, putting the bed just under $1,100.

Best Hybrid - Casper Wave Hybrid

Material: Hybrid (foam and coils) Firmness: Medium (5/10) Customer Rating: 4.6/5 Delivery: Ships free within 2-7 business days Trial Period: 100 nights Warranty: 10-year limited Available Sizes: Twin, twin XL, full, queen, king, California king

While Casper is a longtime label in the online mattress world, the Wave Hybrid is the brand’s most lavish model yet. The hybrid mattress has multiple memory foam layers that cushion its support layer of pocketed coils. The Casper Wave Hybrid features a durable coil base, designed to prevent sinking and sagging while supporting your whole body. Testers said the coils, in combination with the cradling top layers, made the mattress a great match for stomach sleepers — especially considering the bed’s superior spinal alignment (9/10). The bed also scored well in pressure relief (8.5/10), edge support (8.75/10), cooling (9/10), motion transfer (9/10). The bed performed best in the responsiveness category (9.25/10), which testers attributed to the unusually elastic nature of Casper’s foams. If you’ve never owned a hybrid mattress, you can also rest assured that while the coils add substantial height (the Wave Hybrid sits at 13 inches tall), hybrids don’t need to be paired with a box spring.

What Makes a Mattress Brand Good?

If you want to select a good mattress brand, start by defining the most important traits, be that robust warranty coverage, reputable customer service, quality and longevity of materials, or a brand’s social and environmental impact. Mattress Advisor takes into account brand policies to assign scores in customer service and social impact categories, which the brands in this lineup excelled in. Once you’ve found a mattress brand you’re comfortable buying from, next comes the task of finding the right mattress model to support you.

Choosing the Right Mattress Brand

When it comes to buying the best mattress, brand matters, but isn’t everything. For instance, an expensive, well-known mattress brand that sounds great on paper won’t necessarily be right for your body type or sleep style. And when it comes to your comfort, you may understandably weigh some mattress qualities, like finding a bed that cools sleepers who overheat, more heavily than others, like finding a bed that’s American-made. Of course, sleeping hot is just one among any number of nighttime needs, and you’ll also need to factor the needs of your partner if you co-sleep. Fortunately, the vast majority of the mattresses we’ve rounded up already boast qualities that are desirable for buyers, including being made in the U.S., and from hypoallergenic materials.

Type of Mattress

As you dig deeper under the covers to find the right mattress, the most important aspect to consider is mattress type. Mattress type is an indicator of what the bed’s main support layer is, how long you can expect the bed to last, and how the bed will likely feel. Here’s a bit more about each of the main mattress types: Memory foam: A mattress that consists entirely of foam is called a memory foam mattress (also colloquially called an “all-foam” bed). Memory foam mattresses tend to be the go-to mattress type for side sleepers. Firmer memory foam mattresses that give enough hip lift can also be a good choice for stomach sleepers, especially beds that use firmer foams in the mid-section part of the mattress to give the sleeper more lower back lift. Innerspring: Bed with innerspring coil layers are excellent for sleepers who like bounce and breathability since the coils promote airflow. Early models of innerspring beds used an interconnected “continuous” coil build that transferred motion across the surface. Fortunately, that’s been mitigated by modern hybrids, which use fabric-encased coils. Latex: Latex is a popular but pricey mattress material. The latex layer, depending on how it’s processed into foam, can be more aerated and soft, or rigid and bouncy. Synthetic latex, while cheaper, also tends to have a more chemical smell upon unboxing than natural latex. Hybrid: Hybrids neatly combine and put a bow on the best of two mattress types, innerspring and memory foam. You can think of a hybrid as skipping a step you’d have to take in the past if you bought an innerspring mattress and later added a plush foam mattress topper — all those components come built together in a hybrid mattress.

Performance Factors Measured in Testing:

Temperature Regulation You’re far from alone if sleeping too hot torments you, as mattresses are often marketed for their cooling abilities. In the sleep tab, testers assess how cool-to-the-touch the bed’s surface feels, and how effectively their body heat is circulated away from the surface when lying down. Pressure Relief It’s important to find a bed that allows for sink but also gives enough pushback to support the hips and maintain a neutral spine. One way to assess this is to double-check that a bed had a well-distributed pressure point relief map in the Mattress Advisor sleep lab. Spine Alignment Whether you’re sleeping on bouncy springs or smushy memory foam, you’ll want to pick something that promotes a healthy posture. Sleeping with good spine alignment can prevent you from aches and pains come morning. It’s an especially important consideration for stomach sleepers, who sleep with their neck at an angle that can torque the spine. Motion Isolation Solo sleepers may not need to sweat motion isolation. However, those who co-sleep where one or both sleepers are easily jostled awake should pay attention to this score. A high motion isolation score indicates there’s little to no chance of movement being felt across the bed’s surface. Edge Support If you’re tight on space, a bed’s edge support can be an especially important factor, since you may not have room to add chairs or benches. And in order to safely use your bed’s edge for tasks like slipping on socks, it has to be able to hold you. Check that a bed has at least an 8.5 out of 10 rating from testers if solid edge support is an x-factor for you. Durability Like a lot of other household products that are subject to heavy use, mattresses have expiration dates. However, depending on the materials, you can expect a great deal more longevity from some mattresses compared to others. Mattress Advisor testers give durability scores based on materials, and you can expect at least 10 years of solid use from a mattress assigned a score of 8.5 out of 10 or higher for durability.

Things To Consider When Deciding Between Mattress Brands

Unboxing: Most mattresses you buy online, with a few exceptions, will arrive in a box. Make sure you don’t leave the mattress in the box longer than what the brand recommends, or you could render permanent damage. Generally, a few days or even weeks is fine to leave the bed in the bed in the event you’re traveling or don’t yet have a spot ready to unfurl the mattress. Set-up: Heavier mattresses, especially those that lack handy fabric handles, can be quite difficult to set up on your own. Brands tend to offer guidance on the amount of help you will — or won’t — need to set up your bed. Make sure you’re aware of those guidelines so you don’t risk hurting yourself in the set-up process. Warranty: Ultimately, a lifetime warranty is only as meaningful as the company’s longevity. Fortunately, the brands we rounded up today with lifetime warranties have solid track records, so will likely be around for as long as you need warranty coverage. On the lowest end, brands have a 10-year warranty — still a decent amount of coverage for a large purchase. Trial Period: The trial period is especially important to consider if you’re an indecisive shopper, and can run as few as 100 days to as lengthy as a year. If you’re unhappy with your mattress during the trial period, there also may be remedies other than returning the mattress, like being sent a complimentary pillow top to adjust your bed’s feel. Price: Mattresses fall within a vast range of prices, although the beds we’ve rounded up today are in a more humble range, generally falling between $799 and $1,799. Be sure to look beyond the sticker price though: Brands frequently run deals, even in between big mattress sale holidays. Shipping and Delivery: Most mattresses have shipping included, although to return a mattress, you may have to furnish your own shipping cost, which can be quite pricey (generally at least $100). The time between order and delivery can vary widely, as some mattresses are ready to hit the road immediately, while others are made-to-order. What are the benefits of buying a mattress online? How long will my new mattress take to ship? Mattresses that are made-to-order may take 1-2 weeks before a shipping label is ever created. On the other hand, some mattresses are a speedy 2-3 business days before they’re on your doorstep. Be sure to read the fine print about manufacturing if you need a new bed ASAP. Are there discounts when you buy from an online mattress brand? Buying directly from the mattress brand cuts out the retail middleman, often leading to lucrative deals. After baseline prices are slashed, accessories, like sheets and pillows, will often be included for good measure. How do I know which mattress is best for me? It may feel risky buying a mattress that you haven’t personally tried out. Fortunately, there’s lots of testimonials from pros to help guide you, and generous sleep trials from brands if you change your mind. With enough research, you can make an informed decision that will likely result in a bed that’s your ideal match.

Summary of Our Top Picks for the Best Mattress Brands

Best Overall - Helix Midnight Best Luxury - DreamCloud Original Best for Back Pain - Saatva Classic Best Under $1,000 - Nectar Original Best Value - Nolah Original Best Innerspring - The WinkBed (WinkBeds) Best Latex - Awara Original Best Hybrid - Casper Wave Hybrid